


2024

by PrinceofBadassery



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Zombies, Body Dysphoria, Bucky still has a metal arm, Depression, F/M, Gen, PTSD, but everybody is human, did I mention zombies, it kind of is, mention of other characters from the MCU, there will be explanations, this is not an Avengers VS zombies thing, winterwidow - Freeform, zombies everywhere
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-20
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-02-09 16:47:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1990293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceofBadassery/pseuds/PrinceofBadassery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When an infestious desease that turned humans into mindless zombies broke out in a research facility in 2019, the only casualties were a few scientists. The outbreak was contained. Or so everybody thought. Mysterious attacks started happening all over the globe and before anybody could make the connection it was too late. The disease was spreading and soon normal life was impossible, simply suriving became a fight and only the strongest made it. Where possible humans gathered together in safe havens as the world was taken over by the Infested.</p><p>That was five years ago. </p><p>With only a small portion of humankind left, every single life counts. The Globemaster and its crew were sent out to gather the last survivors and resources.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I need another multichapter fic, because one is not enough. So here is my take on a zombie AU. I'll try to include as much of the other Avengers as possible, they are all there and will have a part, but the focus will most likely be on Bucky and Nat.

Natasha was sick of it, really sick of it, because quite frankly it was disgusting. She ducked the clumsy attempt of a zombie to get a hand on her neck and slid along the floor, kicking its feet out from underneath it and jamming her knife so deep into the zombie’s neck it nicked the floor, severing the spinal cord. Black goo started oozing out of the wound as soon as she pulled the knife out.

A long time ago she’d thought that maybe she would get used to the disgusting smell, that was somewhere between a decaying body and a full fridge that had started to grow its own civilization. Mothballs too, she thought, as she wiped her knife on her pants and put it back into the sheath, but that didn’t really make the smell more pleasant. She’d never feel clean again in her life.

She stared at the dead zombie and it stared back at her with dead eyes and open mouth, the inside rotten. It was thin too, barely skin on bones, just like the others she had eliminated earlier. These zombies hadn’t seen a human in weeks; they’d probably been trapped in here, too dumb to find the exit.

She checked her watch, a sturdy analog model she’d picked up a long time ago in some city she couldn’t remember the name of. They’d passed so many cities and all had been the same, abandoned and infested with zombies.

It showed five past four, they had entered the mall 20 minutes ago, time to call in.

“Clear.” She said into her walkie-talkie. A children’s model, short range, constantly needed battery replacement and only came in a disgusting shade of pink, but it was the only thing they had available for remote communication so it had to do.

Crackling was heard from the other side, before Clint answered her. “Clear.”

“Find anything useful yet?” She asked. They had ventured into a long since abandoned mall, crawling with the Infested, to maybe find supplies that had not been ransacked or spoiled a long time ago.

“Nope, shit’s been cleared out. Found a few batteries, might be dead though.” Clint sounded frustrated. “You?”

“Nothing yet. I’m going to head to the second floor, there’s an outdoor supply shop there. Might be able to pick up some weapons if nothing else.”

“Okay, I’ll keep looking around here, meet up in 20 minutes?”

“Sounds good.” Natasha stuffed her walkie-talkie back into her jacket pocket. She was currently in a small cosmetic store on the first floor of the medium sized mall, having entered through the side entrance. They had decided to split up to cover ground faster, neither of them had wanted to stay in the mall for long and both were capable of holding their own with the Infested. Clint had entered from the opposite end and had found the grocery store while she had had bad luck and only discovered clothing stores, which considering their situation was not entirely bad thing, but they were already equipped with decent clothing and were more in need of food and batteries as their supplies were running low.

She carefully glanced around the corner. She was nearing the center of the mall that was mostly wide open space and a non-functioning escalator to the second floor. There were two round pillars on either side of the escalator and a few potted plants strewn about. Those were her only options for cover. She spotted a group of Infested to the left of the escalator but they seemed inactive as it was often the case when there were no humans around.

Natasha silently swore. She counted at least five in that group, there might be more. There had already been two in the cosmetic store and another one in a Macy’s just where she had entered the mall. She could take out three at a time - no problem, but five were too risky, not without backup. The more zombies were in one place the higher the chance of a fast one or a Biter being among them. With how the mall was set up the escalator was the only option to get to the second floor from where she was. The mall had an oval shape with the main entrance in the middle of the longer side and the escalators where located just in front of it. There might have been stairs or another escalator in one of the bigger stores, but there was no time to look for them. She knew there was a staircase on the side Clint had entered, but that was in the opposite direction she wanted to go. The mall only had two floors, it would be easy just to use her grabbling hook to get to the second one but Natasha had no way of telling that there weren’t any zombies waiting for her upstairs and the noise might alert the group downstairs.

She had to be careful and silent and with some luck they wouldn’t notice her. Natasha ducked and ran across the open space to the nearest potted plant that surely had seen better days and was a poor excuse for a cover, but the zombies weren’t looking in her direction anyway. She had a throwing knife in one hand and her Glock-17 in the other and from where she was crouching now she could see the five zombies clearly. One was standing, facing the wall, head leaned against it. One was curled up on the ground another one lying stretched out on top of it and the last two were sitting, leaning on each other with one leaning its head on the others shoulder. It was a weird display of affection considering their condition and one might even think of it as cute, if it weren’t for slightly green tint of their skin and their overall very dead appearance.

Two potted plants and a pillar later Natasha was at the foot of the escalator praying that it would not start creaking when she walked up. The zombies had not moved an inch.

Her fear was unfounded; the escalator was stuck, rusted in place. She noticed a broken window in the glass ceiling just above it. Rain had gotten the better of it. The rest of the glass ceiling was almost completely covered in dirt and grime, casting the inside of the mall into dim light, even though there were still a few hours of daylight left in the day. Upstairs held a surprise in form of a zombie lying on ground, face down and unmoving. Natasha flipped the knife in her hand, ready to use it, when she noticed that the neck already had a wound similar to the one she just intended to inflict. Stab wound to the base of the neck, severing the spinal cord, killing the zombie. The wound looked fresh, oozing dark liquid onto the floor, it couldn’t have been older than ten minutes and that could only mean one thing.

There was another human in this building.

Natasha raised her pistol, ducking back behind the escalator. Humans always meant trouble and if they were already here then they might have already gotten to whatever supplies might have been left. It would get ugly if she ran into them.

Killing zombies was not a problem, but humans on the other hand, especially humans that just tried to survive very much like Clint and herself that was a whole other story. Unfortunately sharing supplies was not an option for most people, though she would consider it if the human in question would be a valuable addition to the team. After all, the only goal was to survive and traveling in groups upped the chances considerably. They had run into several survivors the past couple of weeks, but those had either started a fight or had run away only to be killed or turned by the zombies. They had avoided other humans as much as possible after that.

Natasha stayed low, crouching behind the balustrade and keeping an eye out not only for zombies but the potential human threat. She wanted to warn Clint but the no-call period was not over yet. They’d implemented that rule after an incident where the noise from the walkie-talkie had alerted a zombie and had almost killed Natasha. Since then they found a safe spot every 20 minutes to give updates and only risked calling outside of that period in extreme emergencies.

The outdoor supply store at the very end of the mall, just above the Macy’s that she had entered through and she decided that potential weapons and maybe a leftover camping cooker was well worth it. Humans could be reasoned with unlike zombies. She tried not to think about having a real warm meal after weeks of nutritional bars as she snuck towards the store. She kept close to the wall as the banister was made of glass and a zombie could easily spot her if she stayed to close to it.

A few of the stores she passed had zombies in them that had been eliminated much the same way as the first one. She wondered how the other person got in, the zombies on the ground floor had very much been alive and Clint and she had used the only two entrances that had not been completely barricaded shut.

By the time she reached the store she had passed at least a dozen dead zombies all masterfully killed with a single stab to the neck or in some cases completely decapitated. Those were only the ones she could see from the store entrances, there could have been twice as many if not more. She gripped her knife a little bit tighter and readied her pistol. Whoever it was who was in the store in front of her, they were a skilled fighter, on the same level as herself, if not better, and a trickle of doubt crept into her mind if it had been a good idea. She wished she had waited on Clint.

The store was dark, even more so than the other ones as it was the biggest one on this floor and had no windows. The meager light that came from the entrance only reached to the first few aisles and she could only make out vague contours after that. The shelves were mostly empty with what little was left strewn on the ground. She stepped over a dead zombie, her whole body tense. The store looked deserted and she couldn’t hear anybody moving. Either the person was already gone or they were hiding. She flipped the knife over in her hand, a nervous gesture, and took another step.

“Hey.”

The voice came from her left and she whirled around, a dark figure was sitting on the display table and before she could remember that zombies didn’t talk she pulled the trigger. The shot rang out through the store and probably the entire mall. The person had tried to avoid the bullet by turning their head but the shot connected anyway and their head snapped back. Silence followed for several seconds where neither of them moved until Natasha could hear the mumbles of now awake zombies somewhere in the back of the store. Shit, she hadn’t meant to do that, she wasn’t usually this jumpy.

“I had hoped for a nicer welcome.” The other person said and Natasha’s eyes widened. Hadn’t she just shot him? The voice was definitely male. He slid of the table and took a few steps towards her. He was clad entirely in black. Combat boots, gloves and fatigues with a black leather jacket on top, the lower half of his face was covered with a mask and black goggles covered his eyes. Now that he stepped into the light she could see the tiny mark on the right lens where her bullet had hit. His forehead was the only place where white skin was exposed. His hair was dark brown, almost shoulder length and way too messy for someone whose clothing clearly screamed military.

She didn’t have time to ponder on that when a noise behind her made her turn around just in time to dodge an angry zombie lunging at her. She rolled on the floor and readied her knife as it stumbled to the ground. She could see the man taking on two more zombies that had staggered out of the aisle; they were of the slow variant unlike the one that had attacked her. It had recovered already and prepared for another lunge, drool flying out of its mouth as it screamed at her. She twirled her body around and kicked it right in the face, hearing a satisfying crack as she broke its neck, then brought her knife down to finish the job.

When she looked up the man casually wiped his knife on his pants the zombies dead at his feet. He watched at her as she jumped back on her feet, or at least it appeared so, it was hard to tell with his face completely covered.

“Maybe now we can talk.” He said and stepped closer to her. He was at least half a foot taller than her.

It seemed like he wanted to say more, but it came out incomprehensible as he suddenly jumped forward, pushing Natasha to the side. An Infested had snuck up on top of the aisle behind. Natasha stumbled but stayed on her feet. Quickly she turned around to see the man raise his left arm as the zombie now flew at him with an open mouth, sharp teeth protruding unnaturally. It was a Biter. Her eyes widened; there was no way he would be able to avoid it. With a scream the zombie chomped down on his arm.

He took a step back from the impact, the zombie now quite literally dangling from his arm.

Now she had a decent excuse to kill him, was the first thought that crossed her mind. The second one was, shit, now she’d have to kill him.

The zombie looked quite befuddled as if it had not expected to actually manage to bite him or maybe she was reading too much into it. The man flipped the knife over in his other hand and drew it across the back of the zombie’s neck in one fluid motion. It dropped like dead weight. The next moment Natasha had her gun pointed at him for the second time today.

He let his head hang when he noticed her gun trained on him and sighed. “Again?”

“Drop the knife.” Natasha ordered. The knife cluttered to the floor and the man raised his hands without further prompting. For someone who just got bitten he looked way to comfortable just standing there. Now in the better light she could see that he was armed to the teeth, two more knifes and a grabbling hook, a much bigger version than her own, were attached to his belt and were those grenades?

She noticed two pistols and another knife on his right thigh holster, a very odd configuration, custom build she figured, another gun was strapped to his left thigh and she could barely make out an automatic pistol on his back.

“Guns are useless against zombies.” Natasha said.

“And yet you are pointing one at my head.” He almost seemed amused.

“I’m pointing one at your neck.”

The seconds ticked by and he didn’t move. She kept eyeing his arm where the zombie had bitten him, there was no visible wound, but that didn’t mean anything. It only needed a nick to the skin for someone to be infested. He should have been writhing in pain by now.

Half a minute passed and neither said a word. A minute and he slowly shifted his weight from one foot to the other and Natasha tensed.

“Now that we have established I am not going to turn into a raging green half-dead monster, may I move?” He asked.

He had a point so Natasha nodded but didn’t lower her gun just yet. He sighed and slowly pulled the sleeve on his left wrist back revealing what looked like silver metal.

“Body armor?” Natasha asked perplexed and lowered her gun at last.

Before he could answer they were interrupted yet again, luckily not by zombies this time.

“Tasha!”

Natasha immediately turned around and saw Clint sprinting towards the shop, his bow in hand with an arrow already set on the rest. He was closely followed by another man who carried a round shield in his hand, but seemed unarmed otherwise.

“We heard the gunshot.” Clint said as he reached them, he looked around for potential threats but when he couldn’t find any he kicked one of the dead zombies on the ground for good measure.

“What happened and who’s this?” He nodded to the other man who calmly pulled his sleeve back down.

“Could ask you the same thing.” Natasha countered and gestured to the man behind Clint, who she now saw was dressed in some kind of combat suit with silver highlights, most prominently a silver star on the chest. There was also a star on his shield. He had short blond hair and while he was of similar height and built as the man she had run into, they couldn’t have looked more different.

“Bucky, what happened?” The blond man addressed the other one and Clint snorted, giving ‘Bucky’ an once-over and Natasha couldn’t help but smirk. He really didn’t look like someone called ‘Bucky’.

Bucky casually picked up his knife and sheathed it at his waist, before speaking.

“Got held at gunpoint twice, was only shot once, killed some zombies, met a beautiful lady, the usual.”

Clint stared at Natasha wide-eyed. “You shot him?”

Natasha shrugged. “I thought he was an Infested and he startled me.”

Clint shook his head incredulously. “That’s not like you.”

The blond man stepped closer looking entirely unamused. “We can talk later. Your gunshot alerted everything in the mall and they’re on the move. We need to leave.”

“What about the supplies?” Clint asked.

“There’s nothing here.” Bucky said. “And besides, where we’re going we don’t need anything from here.”

“Maybe we need it.” Clint said defiantly.

“You’re coming with us.” The blond man said and nodded to his partner to follow before he left the store, taking a left turn and going the opposite way Natasha had come earlier. He headed back towards the center of the mall.

Bucky stepped over the dead zombies and past Natasha and Clint only stopping for a moment at the entrance waiting for Clint and Natasha to follow.

“What’s the matter? Never wanted to see a Safehaven?” With his face covered it was hard to tell, but Natasha was sure he was smiling.

Clint’s eyes widened at the word. “Those are a myth.” He breathed.

Bucky shrugged. “Suit yourself, but this place is crawling with zombies. If I were you, I wouldn’t want to stay here.” With that he followed his partner and left Clint and Natasha alone in the store.

“I..-“ Clint started, when he suddenly noticed the horde of Infested advancing on their position. “Holy shit.” From where they were standing in the store entrance they had a clear view of their side of the mall, including the walkway surrounding the entire floor. The right side that had been cleared by Bucky earlier now had a small group of maybe six zombies coming their way, some faster than others. On the left side however, the side Bucky and his partner had taken, there was an entire army advancing and the man with the shield was heading directly towards them.

Their options where limited: Either take a right, fight off the few zombies, take the escalator down and exit the building from there, concluding an entirely pointless mission or take a left, follow Bucky and the serious blond guy, fight an army of Infested, somehow survive and go to their supposed Safehaven.

“Safehaven.” Natasha suddenly whispered. She’s heard of them of course, every survivor had and everybody said something else about their existence or where they were supposed to be. Not just a safe place, but a place with a peaceful community, striving outside of the zombie infested lands, self-sustaining on energy and food. For some it was paradise.

“You really believe them?” Clint asked.

Natasha looked him in the eye. “Did you see these guys? They were equipped with high end weapons, nothing you just find lying around. And this guy, Bucky, he had some kind of armor on his arm that withstood a Biter.” She looked after them. “And they’re not carrying any backpacks or other supplies, they got a base somewhere, if it’s not a Safehaven, it might be something else.” She looked back to Clint, who still looked doubtful. “I’m willing to risk it.”

Clint looked after them and sighed. “Okay. Whatever you say.”

Natasha smirked. “Good.”

They sprinted after them and soon caught up.

“Changed your mind?” Bucky quipped.

“I’ve to see what this is about.” Natasha said, pulling out her knives at the sight of the zombie horde in front of them, the fastest ones were maybe thirty feet away now.

“And you?” Bucky asked Clint.

“I go where she goes.” Clint lifted his bow up and shot an arrow straight through the nearest zombie’s neck.

“Get ready.” The blond man shouted and then threw his shield like a frisbee at the zombies, decapitating the first two it came in contact with and lodging in the thirds chest. He sprinted after it, punching a fourth zombie over the banister.

Clint watched in awe before he seemed to remember to put another arrow on the rest. Bucky had pulled the gun on his left thigh holster.

“Now that we don’t have to be sneaky anymore I can finally use this.”

“You sound a bit too happy about that.” Clint mumbled under his breath but Bucky didn’t seem to hear him. He fired three rounds in quick succession and three zombies’ heads exploded almost simultaneously. Natasha whistled in approval.

“Hollow point bullets. I like it.” She said.

“Thanks.”

The walkway was wide enough that they ended up fighting next to each other and didn’t get in each other’s way. Bucky using his gun and a knife at the same time, Natasha wielding two knives; both dropping zombies left and right at considerable rates. The man with the shield decapitated, smashed in and punched them over the banister. Natasha soon noticed that the shield had retractable blades mounted on the inside that extended when thrown or manually activated, making it as much an offensive weapon as it was a defensive one. Clint slung the bow over his shoulder once the zombies were to close and resigned to his knife as primary weapon, which was more of a machete than anything else really.

It didn’t take long for Clint and Natasha to notice why the other two had chosen this way instead of the easier, less zombie infested one. On this side of the mall there was an additional fire escape exit, accessible over a small hallway nestled between a McDonald’s and a Panda Express.

“This is your plan?” Natasha yelled over the slashing, smashing and shooting as well as the occasional zombie scream.

“Yes, our ride should be here any second now.” Bucky yelled back. They had mowed down at least forty zombies total and were just about to reach the passage way, when the loud roar of engines echoed through the mall.

“There it is.”

The man with the shield was in the hallway first, clearing the way, Clint followed closely behind. Natasha and Bucky were left to defend the rear with zombies pouring into the tiny hallway after them. It led to a fire exit staircase, which already had zombies climbing up from the ground floor. A few kicks and punches later, most of them were tumbling down from where they came from. They all poured onto the fire escape, with Natasha and Bucky staying besides the door. The roar of the engine was getting louder now that they were outside and once they looked up, they knew why.

A giant plane was positioned just above the mall, its normally horizontal engines turned vertical for upwards thrust. It hovered in the air like a helicopter.

“Holy shit.” Clint said once again.

An opening suddenly appeared on the underside of the plane and two rope ladders where lowered. They ended just a few feet away from the banister of the fire escape. They would have to jump to get to them.

“Climb up!” The man with the shield shouted to Clint and he didn’t need to be told twice. He put his machete back into its sheath and climbed on the banister. With a not so graceful leap he made it to the rope ladder and immediately started to hoist himself up.

“Go!” Bucky yelled as he fired another two shots into the zombie horde that followed them. The bodies were starting to pile up, making it harder for them to advance. The blond man put the shield on his back where it stuck to his vest and jumped to the same rope ladder Clint was already occupying further up.

“You too!” Bucky shouted to Natasha.

“We have to jump together. They’ll get you otherwise.” Natasha had switched to her gun as well, she didn’t have hollow point bullets but a well-placed shot to the neck did the trick too. Bucky turned to her, his forehead, the only part she could see of his face, was furrowed. Confusion maybe, she could only guess. Then he nodded.

They fired what they had left in their magazines to up the body count and buy them some time. Then as one they turned and climbed the banister. The rope ladders were swinging in the wind from the engines; they waited till the unoccupied one was the closest and jumped. Bucky caught one of the crossbars with his right hand and immediately tangled his feet in the ladder. Natasha at the same time reached for bar just underneath the one he had caught. She almost had it when suddenly she felt something jerk on her leg. A zombie had made it onto get on the fire escape. It didn't manage to get ahold of her, but it was enough. Her fingers closed around thin air and she fell fast.

Before she even had time to scream though Bucky caught her arm with his left hand and she jerked to a painful halt, her feet now dangling underneath the lowest bar. Her arm ached and her wrist felt like someone had just put a metal clamp around it and screwed too far. She stared wide-eyed at the masses of zombies underneath her feet, as she processed what just happened. Only then did she look up at Bucky.

“Don’t let go of me.” She said. The plane was moving away from the mall now, a few zombies unsuccessfully trying to jump after them.

“Impossible.”

In the end they didn’t even have to climb up, the rope ladders were pulled up into the loading bay of the plane where a quirky looking man in a lab coat and messy hair greeted them. Clint was sitting on the floor grinning, while the blond man had hung his shield on the wall on the side of the loading bay. A row of lockers was located on either side of the bay as well as shelves that held various equipment. The man pulled his gloves off and threw them in the locker next to him.

Natasha inspected her wrist, it hurt like hell and was badly bruised, but it didn’t seem to be broken. The guy had an iron grip that was certain.

“Sorry about that.” Bucky suddenly said beside her, there was something in his voice she couldn’t quite place, guilt maybe. He reached behind his head and snapped open the closure for the goggles before pulling them off, revealing light blue eyes underneath. The mask soon followed and for the first time Natasha could see the face of the man she had almost killed earlier. The mask and the goggles had left red marks on his face, she thought looked quite funny, but despite that he was definitely one of the more handsome specimens. She liked what she saw.

“Better than falling to my death.” Natasha said and smiled at him. “Thank you.”

Bucky nodded but didn’t meet her eyes.

“I believe formal introductions are in order.” The blond man suddenly said. Clint jumped to his feet. The man in the lab coat stood to the side, obviously uncomfortable.

“I’m Captain Steve Rogers. This is Sergeant James Barnes.” He pointed to Bucky and Bucky nodded in response. “And this is Doctor Bruce Banner.” He gestured to the man in the lab coat who fidgeted with his glasses. “And you are?”

“Clint Barton.” Clint said, he offered the Captain his hand and Steve shook it.

“Natasha Romanoff.” Natasha added.

“Welcome aboard the Globemaster.” Steve said.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha and Clint finally get a break from the zombies and a well deserved shower. Nat meets the rest of the crew and probably wishes she hadn't.

If the plane looked big from the outside it definitely looked even bigger from the inside. The loading bay was huge to put it simply. Natasha could see that besides the opening in the floor there was also the option of opening up the end, creating a ramp for vehicles to drive into the plane. She counted three cars in the bay, two military jeeps, one with a mounted machine gun on top, and one very colorful ‘zombie-proofed’ VW bus with bars over the windows and extra plating with spikes welted onto them across the wheels. It had “Die Zombie scum” spray painted across the side in red. Natasha somehow doubted that was a military issued vehicle.

“Got that one a month ago from a couple of hippies turned zombie hunters. Picked them up in the middle of Iowa they thought the Safehaven was in Cali and didn’t want to let it go. We took it with us so they would stop making a fuss. We didn’t have the heart to tell them they were going the wrong direction.” Bucky explained with a smirk. “The moment we got them back they had forgotten about it though.” He shrugged.

“Where is the Safehaven?” Clint suddenly asked, having stepped beside them, admiring the art on the van.

“New Jersey.”

Clint groaned. “You gotta be kidding me.”

“Nope.”

Natasha couldn’t help but grin at Clint’s exaggerated display of disappointment. He had always hoped it was in Florida.

“Buck!” Steve suddenly called. He was standing at the foot of the stairs that led to the higher floor.

“Yeah?”

“Are you alright with explaining everything?”

“Yeah sure. Go ahead and take a shower.”

Steve nodded before disappearing upstairs.

“Shower? Did I just hear shower?” Clint piped up, disappointment forgotten. “Are there showers on this thing, real showers with water, those kind of showers?”

“With warm water.” Bucky said and Clint dropped to his knees.

“I died and I’m in heaven, one of the zombies got me, I knew it.”

Natasha rolled her eyes. “You’re not dead, Clint.” She turned to Bucky. “Sorry about my friend.”

“Don’t worry about it. That’s usually the first thing people comment on, that and food.” He shrugged. “But yeah, as Steve was saying. There are a few things you need to know.” He walked over to the row of lockers that lined the side of the loading bay, they had electronic number pads on each one and he opened two of them. “First, no weapons on the plane. Please store all your weapons, including self-made ones in these. Personal items you can leave in your rooms, but we’ll get to that later.”

He stepped aside as Clint and Natasha came over and waited for them to store their things. Natasha was reluctant to let go of her weapon arsenal as it was the only thing that had kept her alive the last couple of months, but she could understand the reasoning behind it. There were no zombies on this plane, no need for anybody to be armed then. Still she couldn’t shake the feeling of vulnerability that the empty loops on her belt left behind. She was only curious as to why Bucky had not started to disarm yet, except for his mask and goggles he had not taken off anything, not even his gloves. She began putting her knifes away, starting with the ones in her belt, her gun followed next.

There was a soft whirring sound coming from his direction, like metal plates sliding across each other and she looked up. He had crossed his arms tightly over his chest and was watching them.

“My bow doesn’t fit.” Clint grumbled besides her.

“Just put it on top.” Natasha said. “Nobody is going to steal it.”

“You can take the bow with you, if you leave the arrows here.” Bucky commented causing Clint to let out a happy squeal. “What kind of guy fights with bow and arrow against zombies?” Bucky asked amused.

“Don’t laugh man, arrows are like flying knifes.”

Bucky let out a laugh. “You could just throw a knife and get the same effect.”

“Uh-oh! Can you throw a knife at a zombie’s neck from 100 yards?”

Bucky shifted and flexed his left hand. “Never tried it.”

Clint made a disgruntled noise and Natasha put her hands up. “Boys, please.” She looked them both in the eyes. Bucky chuckled and raised both his hands in surrender. Clint grumbled an excuse.

They finished putting their things away and punched in a code on the number pad. Natasha felt a little bit better about that; at least nobody would touch their stuff.

Bucky lead them to a steel door to the right of the stairs. The loading bay only seemed to take up half of the plane’s length so the rest of it had been converted to whatever lay behind that door, Natasha figured. There was a similar door on the left of the stairs.

“These are the passenger’s quarters.” Bucky explained. “We’ve got room for up to 20 people, but right now you get all this space for yourselves.” He stepped through the door into a hallway. Doors lined the walls in regular intervals and even though the hallway and the doors were all painted white, it was obvious they were all made out of steel.

“Just pick one and get comfortable.”

At the end of the hallway he showed them a large room containing a table with several chairs, cupboards on the wall and a decent sized kitchenette in the corner, the ‘common room’, he explained, complete with air quotes. Food was in the cupboards. On the other side was the bathroom and Clint had to lean onto the wall for support as he saw the shower.

“Please be civil about the use of the shower. Bruce had to patch people up before, because they got into a fight over who gets to use it first.”

“Bruce?” Clint asked confused.

“Dr. Banner, you met him earlier, he’s our medic, kinda.”

Clint nodded and then turned to Natasha, giving her the biggest puppy eyes she had ever seen. Not even the look he had given her back in the day when he had tried to convince her to get a dog for their shared apartment could top that.

Natasha sighed and rubbed her eyes. “Fine, you go first, but don’t take too long.”

She couldn’t even finish the sentence before Clint had vanished into the bathroom and closed the door in their faces.

“There isn’t a second shower by any chance, is there?”

“Not here, no. Only a restroom with a sink.”

Natasha shrugged. “That’ll have to do then.” Inside the door she could hear the water being turned on and Clint’s crows of delight. When she turned to Bucky she saw the smug look on his face and she put a fist to her hip. “What?”

“Your boyfriend is quite a handful.”

Natasha rolled her eyes. “He’s not my boyfriend. Just some guy I kill zombies with.” Bucky hummed, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. “With benefits.” She added with an exaggerated sigh and Bucky chuckled. “At least before…” She trailed off, Bucky understood.

There was that whirring sound again.

“I should go. One last thing though, last rule. The rest of the plane is off-limits unless you have permission from one of the crew members. I know it’s boring, but you have to stay in the quarters. If you need anything, there is a com-system in the common room.” With that Bucky walked past her and down the hallway, taking the whirring sound with him. From the bathroom Clint’s very special rendition of Rhianna’s “Umbrella” could be heard.

Natasha did her best to clean up with the tiny sink in the restroom. She stripped down to just her shirt and tried to wash the grime of her arms. She redid her ponytail and washed her face. She still looked like shit, she thought as she looked in the mirror. Dark circles under her eyes and her cheekbones protruded more than she would have liked, but that was no surprise considering her diet over the last couple of months. No wonder she had lost weight. At least she was a little bit cleaner.

She really wished Clint would hurry up. He had moved on to Beyoncé.

In the common room she checked the cupboards, most of them were filled with cans of food, the same stuff Clint and she had been living off for the last couple of months. She found cutlery and plates in drawers and opened another cupboard, more cans, but these were different, they didn’t have a printed label but instead had the content handwritten on them. These must have come from the Safehaven, Natasha realized.

She grabbed one labeled ‘Peaches’ and started looking for a can opener.

Shortly after Natasha was sitting at the table, feet propped up on another chair, leaning back, the open can in one hand. She was eating them directly out of the can, they were soft and juicy and simply perfect. She didn’t know if she ever had had anything more delicious in her life.

Steve found her like this later, there might have been juice dripping down her chin that she wiped away with the collar of her shirt as Steve politely looked anywhere but at her. He was carrying two covered plates that he sat down on the table.

“I thought you might want something real to eat. Thor made celebratory stew for everyone and since there is only two of you, I thought…” He shrugged. “I see you already helped yourself.”

Natasha put the half-empty peach can on the table and removed her feet from the chair. “Thor? Like the Norse god?” She eyed the covered plates.

“He’s our pilot. He makes the best stew, there is real meat in there.” He grinned. He had changed out of what Natasha assumed was his uniform and was wearing a plain light blue t-shirt and beige cargo pants, both seemed a bit too tight on his muscular frame. His hair was still slightly wet and he smelled fresh.

“Real meat.” She repeated, eyes going wide. She lifted the cover off of one the plates and the smell that drifted to her made her forget everything she had thought about the peaches earlier. She pulled the cover off and dug in, letting out a moan after the first bite. There were potatoes and bell peppers, the sauce was rich and she saw traces of fresh herbs, thyme maybe. It was nothing like the canned stuff they had to endure lately and it made her wonder if they had an herb garden on this plane somewhere, it sure was big enough. Steve grinned at her.

“Good?”

“Perfect.”

Steve pulled out a chair and sat opposite her as she shoveled the food into her mouth.

“You haven’t showered yet. Are you more of a food-is-a-priority kind of person?” He asked after a while.

“Oh no, trust me, I would have showered already, but Clint has been hogging the shower.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“So, he’s that… noise.” Lady Gaga’s Paparazzi drifted to them from across the hall.

Natasha gave an apologetic smile and shrugged. Right now she was content just eating this stew, even though she was already full, it was too delicious to just stop. She had a feeling she might regret it later.

“You could use the crew’s shower.” Steve said, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. “It’s against protocol, but we can probably make an exception. Bucky is probably done by now.”

“Oh, I am so down for that.” Natasha said. She quickly put the last few pieces of meat into her mouth before standing. “Let’s go.”

Steve laughed out loud and shook his head, standing as well. He took her mostly empty plate and gestured for her to go ahead. She grabbed her backpack that hopefully would contain a reasonably clean set of clothes. She wasn’t so sure anymore when she had last been able to wash them.

The crew’s bathroom was just one floor up and if she got the layout of the plane correct it was in almost the same spot as the passenger’s. Steve left her alone in front of it and entered a different room she assumed was the kitchen.

She knocked on the door.

“Yeah?”

The voice was muffled, but definitely Bucky’s. She pushed the door open and might have as well walked into a high-school changing room instead of a bathroom on a highly modified military plane. Plain steel lockers where sitting against the two of the walls, a few of them only half closed, one of them wide open with a few clothes hanging inside. A bench stood in the middle of the room. There was a small sink in the corner with a mirror and in front of it stood Bucky, a hair tie between his teeth and both hands trying to get his hair under control. That alone might have already been a curious sight, but Natasha was most taken aback by the fact that his entire left arm seemed to be covered in silver metal, or made of it? She was not sure. If he had been looking her way she might have also been able to control her expression, but right now she was staring shamelessly. Her eyes roamed over his body, taking it all in. He was wearing black sweat pants and a dark green t-shirt that left nothing to the imagination as the muscles in his back were clearly visible underneath the thin material. And while the muscles in his right arm were equally impressive most of her attention was focused on his left arm. It seemed to be composed of segments that wrapped around it, interlocking meticulously. She watched as his hair slipped through the metal digits over and over again. Bucky grumbled with frustration. He snatched the hair tie with his right hand once he had all the hair gathered only to have it slip out of his grasp again before he could tie it. He threw it down on the sink and ran his right hand through his hair, straightening it out again, cursing under his breath. He looked down at his left hand, clenching it to a fist a few times before dropping it to his side. Only now did he turn around.

He let out a string of curses that had Natasha raise an eyebrow as he laid eyes on her and realized who had been with him in the room the entire time. “It’s you.”

“Hey.” She said casually.

He shifted his posture, turning his left side away from her and hiding his arm behind his back. “Already breaking the rules, I like it.” His light-hearted tone contradicted his tense stance. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

“Steve said I could take a shower here. Clint is trying to make up half a years’ worth of showers in one setting downstairs.”

“Oh okay, sure, go ahead.” He pointed to a door on the opposite side of the lockers, the actual shower room. “I’ll be gone in a minute.”

Natasha took a few steps towards it and out of the corner of her eye she could see him relax. “So body armor?” She said as she was already halfway across the room and he tensed up again. She turned sharply and pinned him with a look, a half smile ghosting around her lips.

He sighed and his shoulders slumped down, he let his arm hang loosely at his side again and gave up on hiding it.

“Never said it was body armor.”

“You weren’t too shy about it the first time.”

“You pointed a gun at my head.”

“Neck.”

His mouth formed a tight line as he looked at her. Natasha cocked her head to side slightly. “So what is it?”

“A prosthesis.”

Natasha hummed. “Looks more like Data and T-1000 had a love child.”

“Oh my god!” Bucky fell back against the lockers, throwing his hands up and covering his face. “Please don’t ever let Tony hear that one. I am getting enough lame-ass cyborg jokes as it is.” Bucky groaned.

“How’d you lose it?” Natasha asked and the way his body went rigid again it was definitely the wrong question to ask. He slowly dropped his hands to his side again but didn’t look at her and instead stared off into the distance.

“Had an accident.”

And suddenly there was the whirring sound again and this time Natasha saw what caused it. The segments on Bucky’s metal arm were suddenly shifting, moving against each other, some even rotating, before returning to their original position, only to start shifting again after a brief pause.

“Fuck.” Bucky clenched his left hand as he glared at his arm. “I have to go. I’ll see you around.” He turned around to his locker and slammed the door shut with maybe more force than necessary. He walked past her without sparing her another glance, all while the metal plates on his arm moved about.

Natasha figured there was a really interesting story behind all of this, but it was clear Bucky didn’t want to talk about it. She couldn’t really blame him. The loss of a limb was a traumatic experience; some people handled it better than others and even though it seemed like he had a top of the art replacement it was obvious he was from the latter category.

Natasha pushed her curiosity aside and decided to focus on more important things at the moment, like taking a shower.

In the shower room she found not only a shower cabin but another bigger sink and mirror, with a couple of razors and toothbrushes on the little shelf in front of it. In the cabin she put the shower head back in its rightful place from where it had been lying across the dials and turned the water to hot, letting it warm up as she undressed.

Once she stepped into the hot spray all the tension from the last couple of months left her body and she allowed herself to relax for what seemed like the first time in ages. She ducked her head under the water and just enjoyed the feeling of clean warm water running down her body. This was paradise already, she thought, no wonder Clint didn’t want to get out. She wondered if he was still in the shower downstairs and she chuckled at the thought.

There was a plethora of shampoos and shower gels scattered around the shower, most of them for men, but a few bottles caught her eye that were clearly marketed for women. She frowned at them, mentally going over the list of people she knew were on the plane. There were Steve and Bucky of course, also the medic Bruce Banner. Steve had mentioned Thor, the pilot, and Bucky had spoken of some guy named Tony. Was there also a woman on board? She shrugged and picked up the shampoo, it smelled fruity, lemon, she guessed. Toiletries were one thing that was not hard to come by nowadays, most shops still had plenty on the shelves, but for convenience she had only travelled with a bar of soap and not much more. She was going to take full advantage of having real shampoo and shower gels around and hoped that whoever they belonged to didn’t mind.

Fifteen minutes later she stood in the locker room again, dressed in her cleaner set of clothes, brushing her hair in front of the mirror. She really hadn’t meant to stay in the shower that long, but the water had felt too good. She was about to tie her hair into a ponytail again, hating how gross wet hair felt around her face, when she remembered that Bucky’s hair had been dry, when he unsuccessfully tried to get it under control earlier. There was a hair dryer around here somewhere, she was sure of it.

Natasha checked the half open locker closest to the sink and sure enough, not only a hair dryer but also a hair straightener and a curling iron as well as various men’s hair products lay on the shelves inside.

“Screw the Safehaven, I am staying right here.”

Since she was already upstairs she was not simply going to give up the opportunity to snoop around, if anyone were to ask her what she was doing outside the passengers’ quarters she’d play dumb and say she wasn’t able to find her way back down again after showering. So far she had discovered a restroom and the kitchen, which was considerably bigger than the tiny room that was meant to be a common room downstairs. She also found the crew quarters; signs with the names had been taped to each door and each sign had been decorated with markers. The name Cpt. S. G. Rogers had a little white star underneath it with rings of red and blue surrounding it; she recognized it as the shield he had been carrying. A simple red star was under the name Sgt. J.B. Barnes, but the steel door itself was covered with magnets, ranging from the little letter and number magnets you can spell out notes on the fridge with to the big rectangular souvenir magnets as well as a bunch of random ones. Natasha swore there was a My Little Pony one as well. ‘Bucky’ had been spelled in magnets over the sign itself. Then there were names she could not put a face to. A. E. Stark had a little red and gold robot face underneath it and the sign of V. Potts had been covered with little hearts. Dr. B. Banner she recognized; it had a green fist underneath. The last name, D. Blake, she didn’t recognize, but from the little hammer with lightning coming out of it, she guessed this must be Thor’s real name.

There were more rooms, but none of them had a sign on it, empty crew quarters. She took the stairs to the next level. The second floor of the plane actually looked like the inside of a plane and for the first time she didn’t encounter steel doors everywhere.

Right in front of the stairs were white double doors with square windows in head height. She carefully peaked in, not knowing if someone was inside and sure enough there was a woman sitting at the big table in the middle of the room. The room was dimly lit and monitors lined the walls, only a few were on though. She could see one displaying the inside of the loading bay and another one was showing diagrams of what Natasha assumed were the planes stats at the moment. The most curious thing in the room was the holographic display that hovered over the middle of the room though and it took Natasha a moment to realize that it showed the landscape below. She could make out the houses and streets and every now and then there where light blue blobs, human shaped blue blobs. Zombies. They were scanning the ground as the plane flew over it. So that’s how they had found her and Clint.

The woman had her back to the door, so Natasha couldn’t see much of her, except that she had blond hair pulled into a neat ponytail and was holding a tablet in her hand on which she tapped occasionally, moving text and diagrams around.

Natasha moved on. To her left a little bit further down the hallway was another set of double doors. These were wide open and light poured into the hallway. She heard voices from inside. There was no avoiding the crew members at this point she figured and she had almost explored the entire plane so it didn’t matter anyway. She stepped in front of the door and expected to be told off for being outside the passengers’ quarters or at least be noticed but nothing happened.

She could see Bucky reclining in the kind of chair one would find at a dentist’s office, left arm outstretched over a modified table that seemed to be attached to the chair, his right arm draped over his eyes. Another man was sitting next to his arm. He was currently unscrewing one of the metal plates on Bucky’s forearm, several segments were already lying on the table next to the arm. The man also had goggles with magnifying glasses and a tiny flashlight attached to it on and his short brown hair was in the kind of artistic disarray that took half an hour to achieve.

The walls were lined with cupboards and tables, on them stood all kinds of machinery and scanners that Natasha couldn’t put a name to. She spotted Bruce sitting at a microscope at the opposite side of the room. He was wearing headphones and had his back to her. Behind him were several medical beds with lights and what she assumed where scanners directly mounted above them and there was a kind of glass cubicle big enough to fit a human inside as well. Natasha couldn’t think of any use for something like that.

They still hadn’t noticed her in the doorway.

Bucky shifted on the chair.

“Stop moving.” The other man said without looking up from his work. He had removed the metal plate and turned it over in his hand. He grabbed another tool, shaped like pipe wrench, but looking more delicate and definitely not made for unscrewing pipes. He moved the metal plate in between the pincers without actually closing them. It must have told him something because he suddenly let out a frustrated sigh and threw the metal plate over his shoulder.

“Yeah, thing’s busted.”

He pushed himself off the table and the chair rolled to the table behind him doing a half turn in the process.

“How many times have I told you to not let zombies chew on my baby?” He started rummaging through the drawers.

“I rather have them chew on that arm than any other part of me.” Bucky answered and shifted again, his shoulders tense he looked like he wanted to pull his arm back at any moment.

The other man found what he had been looking for and turned around again. He halted in mid movement as he spotted Natasha in the doorway. He let out a whistle and lifted the goggles to his forehead.

“Hello there, beautiful.”

Bucky lifted his arm from his face to look up.

“Natasha? What are you doing here?”

Natasha put on her most innocent smile as she stepped into the lab. “Got lost.”

Bucky threw her a look that clearly said he was worried about her orientation skills if that was true, but the other man seemed to gobble the lie up and stood excited, offering her his hand, reaching over Bucky in the process.

“Tony Stark’s the name. Resident mechanic and inventor. I’m the one keeping this plane in the air and R2D2 here functional. So you are the fair maiden he rescued earlier.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her. Natasha wanted to throw up.

She flipped her hair over one shoulder and shook his hand, smiling sweetly. That was the guy who harassed Bucky with the nicknames, she wanted to kick him in the nuts.

“She did most of the rescuing herself.” Bucky said nonchalantly, putting his arm back over his eyes and now Natasha noticed it was because of the lamp directly over his head that was blinding him.

"Take a seat." He mumbled. "This is going to take a while."

"Damn right." Tony agreed. "I really wish you would come in more frequently, then I wouldn't have to do four hour maintenance session each time you do."

Bucky said nothing.

Natasha pulled one of the spare chairs close and sat down next to Bucky, leaning her elbows on the chair next to his hip and putting her head in her hands. She winced when she accidently put too much pressure on her injured wrist. She had almost forgotten about it when she was roaming around the plane and hadn’t moved it much. By now it had turned a bright purple all around and it hurt like hell. Bucky looked up again at her and his eyes widened as he noticed her wrist.

He swallowed hard. "You should let Bruce take a look at that."

"It's fine." Natasha assured him.

"Bruce!" Bucky yelled, turning his head to look for the other man, but Bruce still had headphones in.

Bucky whistled loudly and that got his attention. Next to him Tony jumped. "Give a man a warning, will ya?" But he continued to work on the arm without looking up.

Bruce just turned to them confused.

"Can you take a look at her wrist?" Bucky gently took her arm in his hand and lifted it up. If Bruce had any objections to her being in the lab/medical bay he didn't voice them, he just put his headphones down and stood up.

"Sure."

He walked over to one of the beds and gestured for her to follow. Natasha threw Bucky a look that clearly said that was not necessary, but he just jerked his head in Bruce’s direction. Her injured wrist seemed to distress him more than it did her.

Bruce told her to put her wrist underneath one of the scanners that were mounted over the bed and he adjusted it so it was centered. He pulled out a pad similar to the one the woman in the conference room had and pressed a few things on it. The scanner lit up and a red light appeared on her wrist.

"Hold still."

She did as she was told and they stood in silence for several moments as the scanner did its work.

"He didn't do it on purpose." Bruce suddenly said softly without looking up from the pad. Natasha didn't immediately know what he was talking about, but then it clicked.

"He can't control the grip strength in his hand." Bruce continued. Natasha only now realized that Bucky had caught her with his left hand when she hadn't managed to get a grip on the ladder. He had caught her with his prosthesis. That only made it more impressive to her.

"I'm glad he caught me. That's all that matters." She said and meant it. Bruce only nodded.

"Nothing is broken, just really badly bruised. You can remove your hand."

Natasha pulled her hand out from underneath the scanner and rubbed her wrist. She had already known nothing was broken, she would have definitely felt that. “Thanks.”

Bruce nodded at her and slunk back to his microscope.

Natasha walked back over to her chair and Bucky smiled at her when she sat down.

“Hey.” He said.

“Hey.” Natasha returned his smile.

“Everything alright?”

“Yeah, nothing’s broken.”

“That’s good to hear.” He was visibly relieved and relaxed a little, dropping his head back down.

“Stop twitching!” Tony suddenly yelled and punched a button next to Bucky’s arm. Metal constraints shot out and wrapped themselves around Bucky’s bicep and wrist and jerked him into place as his arm had not been completely centered on the table. Additionally a metal arm clamped down on his shoulder. Bucky’s face contorted in pain as he struggled not to cry out at the sudden assault. He held his shoulder with his right hand as he took a few controlled breaths. His eyes squeezed shut.

“Don’t act like that hurt, you can’t feel pain with that thing.” Tony quipped.

“There are squishy parts connected to it and those hurt like hell.” Bucky hissed through clenched teeth.

“That’s your own god damn fault for not wanting to take it off.”

Bucky didn’t say anything, just glared at the other man, still in obvious pain. He shifted on the chair as much as possible with his shoulder and arm now held in place to find a more comfortable position. He didn’t really have a lot of freedom of movement pinned down like this.

“Boys, please.” A voice from the hallway suddenly said and Natasha looked up to see who had spoken.

The woman Natasha had seen in the conference room walked in. She halted when she noticed Natasha sitting next to Bucky. “You are not supposed to be here.”

“She’s with me.” Bucky said immediately and she raised an eyebrow at him.

“Alright. I’m Pepper Potts. I’m the captain of this aircraft.” She introduced herself. “You’re Natasha, I’m guessing. You don’t look like a Clint to me.”

“That’s right. Captain? I thought Steve was…” Natasha trailed off looking to Bucky for an explanation.

“This is a civilian vessel. Captain Rogers has no authority on this plane.” Pepper explained.

“Us military personal got nothing to say here. I’m the only one Steve gets to boss around and Pepper bosses everybody around. Well, not really, she’s nice.” Bucky added, smiling at Pepper.

“Okay, that makes sense.” Natasha said, trying to wrap her head around the new information, she had assumed this was a military operation.

Pepper nodded and turned to Tony, who had not stopped poking around Bucky’s arm the entire time and was mumbling under his breath. “Don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say it.”

“Tony, put Barnes back together, he’s got work to do.”

Tony threw his tools on the table and pulled his goggles up, glaring at her. “But I just got him strapped down! I was going to do some maintenance.” He gestured wildly over Bucky.

“Not tonight. We’ve got survivors.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared back.

Tony groaned exaggeratedly, letting his arms drop to his sides and hanging his head, but he obediently started to put the metal plates back into place on Bucky’s arm after a few seconds. Once he had the final one screwed on Bucky reached over and punched the button for the release mechanism with his right hand and was out of the chair faster than Tony could protest. He was almost out of the door when Tony suddenly threw something at Bucky, aiming for his head. Bucky’s hand shot up and he caught the object with his left. He clenched his fist around it and glared at Tony.

“Don’t crush it.” Tony said, worrying his hands. “Please?”

Bucky narrowed his eyes and opened his hand, turning it so the palm faced the ground and the object stuck to it. It was a tiny magnet; a little smiling bear.

“Again?” He hissed.

“For being a good boy and staying put?” Tony shrugged grinning smugly.

“Fuck you.” And with that Bucky stormed out of the room.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took longer than I thought. I had most of it written ages ago but the last parts just refused to be put on paper/word document. I hope you enjoyed! Please leave a comment if you have thoughts or critique!  
> 


	3. Chapter 3

Bucky slapped the offending magnet on a free spot on his door with his right hand. He was still fuming and Tony’s annoying habit only made it worse. His left shoulder, where his flesh connected to the artificial socket for the prosthesis, still hurt after the ordeal in the chair, but there was nothing he could do about it. He’d had worse.

He quickly put on his “uniform” and snapped the goggles on, pulling them up to rest on his forehead, before he clipped his mask to the combat webbing on his pants. The goggles still had the bullet mark from earlier, where Natasha had shot at him. He would have to give them to Tony at some point to get them fixed. He glanced through the small window above the cot that tried to pass for a bed and frowned. Even damaged the goggles would have to do as night was falling and he would have to rely on the night-vision the goggles provided. Besides, he’d rather not have zombie juices in his eyes. He would have to live with it for now.

The standard military combat pants and leather jacket weren’t really a uniform, but he liked think of them as such. Steve still had his old uniform from his Special Ops days, but even if Bucky still had his, it wouldn’t have fit him, not with the arm as it was now. He slipped on the various gun holsters, one on each thigh and one on the back, all empty for now, since the weapons were locked away on the lower level. It was all routine for Bucky.

He pulled the doors to his room close and headed downstairs, Steve was no doubt already waiting. On the way down he tested his arm for proper functionality as Tony would call it. He closed and opened his fist, bent the fingers individually, rotated the wrist, bent the elbow. Then he did various combinations of the movements until he was satisfied that Tony had put the arm back together correctly, not that he doubted him. Most of all Bucky was glad that the arm had stopped recalibrating every thirty seconds; it was bad enough when it did it randomly over the course of the day. The sensation was uncomfortable to say the least, the pressure sensors went haywire all at once and he had started to get a headache from it.

Tony had explained what had happened, something about a tooth from the zombie that had bit him getting between the metal plates and when they shifted the force had bent one of them slightly. A simple bite would not have damaged the arm, he had said. Bucky scoffed as he thought back at the conversation. A few micrometers was all it took to get the plating out of sync and when it tried to recalibrate it couldn’t finish the cycle due to one of them not sliding into place properly, which had resulted in the arm trying to recalibrate over and over again.

Sure enough Steve was already fully dressed and armed in the loading bay. He was in the process of strapping his shield on when Bucky jumped down the last three steps.

“What took you so long?” He asked without even glancing in Bucky’s direction.

“Tony.”

Steve grunted in response, he knew what that meant.

“Everything alright with the arm?”

“Never better.”

Bucky punched in the code to his weapons locker and started putting the various guns in his holsters.

“So what’s the deal?” He asked after he was done.

Steve had already started preparing the rope pulleys. The plane was loud, there was no denying it, so instead of landing, they would drop down through the hatch in the floor of the landing bay on ropes and sliders that had been modified for vertical use with extra brakes. It was the only way to get to the ground fast and without causing too much disturbance. It would do them no good if a horde of zombies was already waiting for them as soon as they stepped out of the plane.

“Group of four, holed up in some shack it seems. One life sign is pretty weak so we have to hurry.”

“Got it.”

Steve punched the button that opened the hatch and suddenly the loading bay was filled with wind and the deafening roar of the engines. Bucky put his mask and goggles on as Steve dropped the ropes through the hatch and clipped the two sliders in, locking them in place at shoulder height. Bucky glanced down and saw the ground several hundred feet below him. The sun had dipped under the horizon but it was still light enough to make out the vague outline of the city below them. Thor had positioned the plane above a wide street so they shouldn’t have to worry about hitting a building on the way down, but sudden gusts of wind were always a possibility and they had to be careful. What city it was, Bucky didn’t know and he didn’t particularly care either. It didn’t matter whether they were in Washington or Texas, the zombies were all the same.

Steve had already grabbed the slider with both hands and Bucky was about to follow suit when Natasha stepped into the loading bay. Bucky smiled when he laid eyes on her. Her red hair was flying all over her face from the strong wind and she looked like she couldn’t care less about it as she stepped closer.

“Are you going to jump out of the plane?” She carefully peeked over the edge into the darkness.

“Oh my god. That’s what? 700-800 feet?” She sounded more amazed than anything else. Bucky couldn’t help but smirk. He knew why he liked the woman. She glanced from Steve to Bucky and then held his gaze. He knew she couldn’t see his face and his hair was probably even messier than hers. He was fully aware how he must look like in full battle gear and with the wind wiping his hair about, so he stayed silent and calmly grabbed the slider with his left hand and as if she knew what he was about to do, she smirked.

He cocked his head to the side and then let himself fall through the hatch, looking up to her as he was basically free falling with the slider whizzing on the rope next to him.

She was laughing.

Steve was shaking his head beside her, then they were out of view and he engaged the brakes of the slider before the ground was too close.  
He soundlessly slid to a halt a few feet above the ground and let himself drop, pulling out a gun and a knife and crouching low, he surveyed his surroundings. There were no zombies in the immediate vicinity but that didn’t mean anything. There might as well be dozens in the buildings, hopefully asleep. Banner had once told him that they weren’t really sleeping, it was more of a stand-by mode they fell into when no humans were around. They didn’t burn any energy when they were like that and therefore could stay alive indefinitely. “Alive,” Banner had made the air quotes; they weren’t really alive, not anymore.

Steve dropped to the ground besides him.

“Show-off.”

Bucky just shrugged. “After you.”

Steve pulled the shield from his back and looked around, then pointed down the street.

“About 500 meters.”

“Thor couldn’t have dropped us any closer?” Bucky groaned but started walking in the direction indicated.

“You’re just spoiled from earlier when he managed to drop us off on top of the mall.”

“What? It was nice!” Bucky whined in mockery and Steve chuckled.

The street narrowed and soon they saw why Thor had chosen the drop-off spot. They entered a suburban area with low houses and narrow streets. Trees were lining the roads and with nobody around to trim them they had overgrown the streets considerably. There was probably no clear spot to drop down in the whole suburb without having to hack trough meters of foliage first.

There were a few zombies about, lying in the streets or leaning on trees. One was draped over a wire fence bending it almost do the ground. They disposed of them quickly. Whoever was closest to one would approach it and slide the knife over the back of the neck before the zombie even had a chance to rise.

Steve was leading the way and Bucky was following silently behind him. They hardly made a noise beside the occasional crunch of a boot on gravel, mostly Steve’s boots. Bucky grumbled behind his mask, Steve had never really grasped the concept of stealth.

Steve suddenly stopped and brought his arm up, hand in a fist, then pointed to the house on the left. The driveway was overgrown with weeds and bushes, the garage door was left open and a few rotting zombies were lying on a pile in front of the door that lead into the house. The last defense of some survivors.

As they approached they heard agitated voices inside, someone was crying, a woman’s voice was pleading with someone, then there was a low growl from a man telling her to be quiet. Steve gave Bucky a short nod and Bucky turned to keep watch while Steve approached the door. With a deep breath he banged his fist against it twice.

“US Army, open the door!”

A shriek, something fell over and then silence. Steve knocked again.

“Open up, we are here to help.”

Silence again and Bucky turned to look at him, so far no zombies were approaching their position despite the ruckus. Steve sighed and gestured to the door, taking a step back. Bucky holstered his weapons and slung the assault rifle from his shoulder before approaching the door. It was definitely overkill and he didn’t plan on shooting anybody, but humans were easier to impress than zombies.

Bucky rolled his left shoulder, shaking out his arm and after a short glance to Steve he punched the lock clear out of the door and everything they could have had behind it with it, then kicked in the door and stormed the place.

“Everybody on the ground! US Army!”

Steve was close behind him, his shield and a hand gun at the ready. The room was tiny, a girl was huddled in a corner, covering her ears, staring at him with wide eyes. A woman was lying on the ground, in the process of getting up but completely frozen at their entrance. Next to her was some kind of make shift cot where a man was cowering over a small girl a pillow in his hands. He growled when he saw Bucky and jumped off the bed; Bucky reacted fast and hit him across the side of the head with the butt of his rifle, throwing him halfway across the room.

“Stay were you are!” Bucky yelled, pointing the rifle at him. “Cap, the girl!”

Steve was at the girls side at once, checking her breathing, while her supposed family stared at the two intruders. The man tried to get up, but a slight twitch of Bucky’s in his direction made him draw back again. The girl in the corner was watching everything, the woman was a sobbing mess on the ground.

“She’s very weak.” Steve holstered his gun and secured his shield on his back, before picking up the girl. “We need to leave.”

Bucky gestured to the man with his rifle to get up and out of the door, then nodded at the girl in the corner to do the same, finally pulling up the woman with one hand around her upper arm and within seconds they were all out of the door and on the street. Steve leading the way carrying the girl. Unfortunately they weren’t the only ones there.

A horde of zombies had made their way to their position and at least twenty were shuffling their way towards them.

“Shit!” Bucky cursed. “Run!” He shoved the woman forward who stumbled but started to run soon after, following Steve who already took off in the direction of the waiting Globemaster. The other girl didn’t need to be told twice and was following the woman already, only the man decided to be difficult and lunged at Bucky again.

“How dare you!” He yelled as Bucky sidestepped him easily, lowering his weapon in the process.

“Start running if you want to live.” He said, his voice cold as ice, before he started running himself, easily catching up with the little group lead by Steve.   
He was angry at what had just transpired and he had to resist the urge to just trip the guy running behind him. That was the kind of person who didn’t deserve to be brought back to humanity. The kind of person who ought to rot in this hell until they were]eaten by the zombies.

He was so deep into his thoughts that he didn’t notice the girl in front of him tripping until she was already falling to the ground, crying out in pain.

“Fuck!” Bucky slung his assault rifle back across his shoulder, picked the girl up under her arms without stopping and clutched her to his chest. She immediately threw her arms around his neck, holding onto for dear life, letting out a surprised yelp.

There were more zombies coming out of hiding now, woken up by the commotion and it became harder and harder to avoid them. Some had enough energy in them to run and were able to keep up.

Over the blood rushing in his ears, Bucky heard Steve call in to Thor to get the plane ready, they were half way there and zombies were coming from all directions and were catching up. With both him and Steve weighted down by the girls they couldn’t fight them, their only chance was to get to the plane before the zombies got to them.

He could hear the plane already and suddenly something whizzed past him and a heavy thud sounded behind him. A quick glance behind revealed a dead zombie with an arrow embedded in its neck.

Seconds later the Globemaster descended in front of them, loading bay wide open with Clint and Natasha on either side.

Another arrow whizzed passed him as Clint took out another zombie behind them and he could hear the soft ping over the roar of the engines of Natasha shooting with a sniper rifle - his sniper rifle - he noticed, perplexed. The thought crossed his mind that he probably shouldn’t find that so attractive while running for his life pursued by a hoard of zombies, but he couldn’t help it.

Suddenly the girl shifted in his grip and he felt the Skorpion on his back coming loose, he panicked slightly before he realized the kid had taken the weapon out of the holster and was trying to shoot the zombies.

“It’s not working!” She yelled as she wriggled in his arms.

“Turn off the safety!” He new technically a young girl shouldn’t be handling heavy weapons, but right now he didn’t care, if she could slow the zombies down just a little bit, it was worth it. He just hoped she knew where to point the dangerous end of the gun and didn’t shoot him.

Any doubt fled from his mind when he heard the rattling of the machine gun and the gurgling of injured zombies behind him. Steve reached the Globemaster first and handed over the sick girl to Bruce, who was already waiting for them, before he helped up the woman. The man scrambled onto the open loading ramp on his own. The girl Bucky carried had just emptied the magazine when they reached the plane and he lifted her up to Steve before starting to climb in himself.

“Go go go!” He yelled as he was halfway up the ramp and he felt the ground drop away from underneath him. Bucky let out a relieved sigh at having made it out alive when suddenly something pulled him down again and he barely managed to hold onto the ramp with his left hand.

He cursed as he saw the zombie that had managed to grab onto his leg. The ground was getting further and further away. It was the second time he dangled from the plane in mid-air and he couldn’t take it anymore. He pulled out his SIG Sauer and let go a barrage of shots into the zombie’s face and then watched as it fell.

For once he was glad that his left arm didn’t tire and he pulled himself up onto the ramp, Steve besides him, fussing and trying to help him.

“I‘m fine Steve! It didn’t get me.” He assured Steve, rolling his left shoulder. Steve raised an eyebrow at him but didn’t comment any further, behind them the ramp finally closed.

After taking a moment to catch his breath Bucky looked around. Natasha was standing to the side, his rifle still in hand and he gave her a short nod of thanks. On the other side of the loading bay the family they had just rescued stood, minus the sick girl. He figured Bruce had taken her to the infirmary. When he say the guy holding his wife and child close his anger flared up again. Only minutes earlier the man had tried to kill his other child and before he even knew it he had crossed the distance between them and punched him straight in the face. He watched him stumbled back, his family gasping and staring with wide eyes, before he was pulled back and Steve stepped into his field of vision.

“What the hell got into you?” Steve was pissed, but Bucky got right into his face, glaring at him.

“Did you see what he tried to do? He deserves a lot more than that!”

“Step down, Sergeant.” Steve said firmly, returning Bucky’s glare.

Bucky snarled and took a step back.

“Pulling rank on me, nice move, /Captain/.”

He brushed past Steve to the lockers and disarmed in record time before storming up the stairs and towards his room. This day was getting too much and he felt the need to punch a lot more, but instead he slammed the door to his quarters shut and let himself fall down on the bed, putting his head in his hands. Only now he noticed he was still wearing his goggles and mask and he quickly pulled them off.

He hoped Steve would at least throw him into a cell and not put him into the passenger quarters with his family and that the little girl would be fine now that Bruce was taking care of her.

A soft knock on the door pulled him out of his thought and he glared at the door, expecting it to be Steve.

“Yes?”

He was pleasantly surprised when Natasha entered and his expression softened immediately.

“Hey…” She said, a small smile on her lips. “You okay?”

Bucky sighed and nodded. “Yeah… I’m fine. Rough day and that asshole didn’t help.”

She tilted her head slightly and moved closer to sit next to him on the bed.

“What happened?” He brows furrowed and her voice was laced with concern.

“The fucker tried to suffocate the little girl, we just arrived in time to stop him, and then the ruckus attracted the zombies.” He rubbed his eyes with his right hand, shaking his head, before he looked at Natasha again and saw her shocked face.

“Why would someone do that?” She asked. “That’s horrible!”

Bucky sighed and looked to the ground.

“You know, this zombie apocalypse brought out two kinds of people. Survivors - “ He looked up and pointed to her. “And people whose only thoughts are who they are going to eat first when the food runs out.”

He shrugged. “Some people lose their humanity when they are driven to extremes, not the first time we saw that happening… or found the remains of it.”

He hung his head, glancing up at her apologetically when he saw her grim face.

She almost mimicked his posture when she spoke again.

“I think we saw that too… We came across a few other people occasionally and some were not too friendly. We decided to stay away from others after that.”

They sat in silence for a while, Bucky didn’t know how to console her, she shouldn’t have been involved in the first place. Natasha was just a passenger and shouldn’t even be in his room. She’d leave once they reached the Safe Haven and that was it. It didn’t feel right.

“You want to get some fresh air?” He suddenly asked and that made her look up and raise an eyebrow at him.

“We’re on a plane.” She sounded like she doubted his sanity and he couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Not just any plane. Come on. I’ll show you.” He got up from the bed, holding his right hand out to her and she pulled herself up and followed him outside.

“You’re not kidding, are you?”

“Nope.” He laughed, feeling a little bit better about the situation. She shook her head, but laughed as well.

“Go get your jacket and come to the back of the plane.” He pointed down the hallway past the other living quarters. “I’ll meet you there.”


End file.
